Free Press Staff Writer

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The turnout wowed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. So did the scope and urgency of the message at the March 16 Global Warming Conference in Montpelier.

Sanders, who organized the event, said about 600 people attended the daylong symposium.

“I was very, very impressed by how many Vermonters were prepared to come out, learn more and figure out how we can go forward,” Sanders told the Burlington Free Press last week.

The senator also lauded keynote speaker and fellow Vermonter Bill McKibben for linking the state’s strong local activism with international efforts.

“Very often we think of the environmental movement as being just white, middle class Americans,” Sanders said. “But for people in many of these countries, this is not some kind of abstract debate. They are looking at drought, lack of water, floods and other extreme weather disturbances.

“Seeing the universal, global concern over global warming was surprising and gratifying,” he added.

Other speakers at the conference heightened Sanders’ appreciation of the urgent need for collective action to avoid “cataclysmic changes” on the Earth.

“Scientists ... have been telling us for years how dangerous global warming will be,” said the senator. “What they are saying now is that the predictions they’ve made about potential damage are on the low end.”

He continued: “They’ve underestimated the rapidity of that change — which makes it that much more important that we be very bold in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”

The cost of inertia, Sanders added, can be counted: Billions of dollars are being spent to repair damage of recent storms in the Northeast.

“If we don’t get our act together, we can expect that every year we’re going to have terrible disasters with greater severity and frequency. That’s what’s out in front of us,” Sanders said. “We can do it, but the time is getting very late.”